From logistics start-up to industry player: the story behind 10 years of zipmend

Hamburg (ots)

An average of 4.8 stars across more than 1,500 Google reviews at the Hamburg site of express logistics provider zipmend is a milestone worth marking. The company launched ten years ago — not to be just a better freight forwarder, but to simplify the processes around transport itself.

Read the reviews and one thing becomes clear: for many customers, zipmend is the way out of a genuine emergency. When a production line stands still, the missing component is 600 kilometres away and the regular provider needs 24 hours' lead time, every hour counts: book online, fixed price shown instantly, collection within 60 to 120 minutes. From there, the shipment goes straight to the recipient — no reloading, no hub, no interim depot where it could sit around or get damaged.

"Digitalising something that hadn't been properly digitalised before — the transport booking process," is how founder Timm Trede describes his motivation. The first attempt was as simple as it gets: a price calculator, a form, and an email running in the background. The principle has stayed the same; everything else has grown. Today the system dispatches over 90,000 connected vehicles across 28 countries, from small vans to 40-tonne trucks. More than 50,000 companies now ship with zipmend.

The team has grown with it: 76 employees from 14 nationalities, including France, the Netherlands and Italy. "It is part of our quality standard to offer personal advice in the native language of each country," says Trede. When someone calls in an emergency, they should never have to explain their problem in English. Once a year, the team's diverse origins are celebrated: at the "Fest der Nationen" (Festival of Nations), everyone brings a dish from their home country.

For Trede, customer satisfaction and the team belong together. "Of course I'm proud of what we've achieved. Our growth shows that we do good work for our customers and have built an environment where people genuinely enjoy working."

Press contact:

Timm Trede
press@zipmend.com